Join the Conversation

Schiano talks Razorback football at NWA Touchdown Club

NATE ALLEN, nallensports@att.net
10:36 p.m. CDT August 21, 2014

In this Dec. 29, 2013, file photo, former Tampa Bay head coach Greg Schiano addresses players during a game against the New Orleans Saints at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Now serving as an analyst for the NFL Network, Schiano discussed Razorback football this week at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club.(Photo: Derick E. Hingle/USA TODAY Sports)

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas' new defensive coordinator got kudos from his old boss addressing the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club Wednesday at Mermaid's Restaurant.

Before joining Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema's Razorbacks staff last winter, Robb Smith served from 2009 through 2011 as special teams coordinator, while variously coaching linebackers and the secondary on the Rutgers staff of Greg Schiano.

Smith served in 2013 as linebackers coach for Schiano with the Tampa Bay Bucs of the NFL after being elevated to Rutgers defensive coordinator in 2012, with Schiano gone to Tampa Bay.

Now an NFL Network analyst with his two-year head coaching run done at Tampa, Schiano visited Smith, Bielema and the UA staff for a couple of practices before his scheduled Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club address.

"You have one of my all-time favorite coaches I've worked with," Schiano said. "I think you've got a great one here. I really do."

Smith — whose first contact with Bielema was as an Iowa 1999 graduate assistant while Bielema coached Iowa linebackers — coordinated Maine's defense when he first came to Schiano's attention.

"When we had an opening, he came down (to New Brunswick, N.J.) to interview and got caught in a snowstorm," Schiano said. "He had one set of clothes and the flights were cancelled. He spent three days with us. Before he left, we had him doing jobs."

Smith was Rutgers' defensive coordinator when the 2012 Scarlet Knights defeated the John L. Smith-coached Razorbacks, 35-26, in Fayetteville.

"Robb did a tremendous job," Schiano said of the 2012 season that Smith coordinated the Rutgers defense for head coach Kyle Flood. "I think they were fourth in the country in defense. Everywhere he has been, he has been very productive."

Smith inherits a leaking Arkansas defense.

"It's going to take a little time, I don't think it's going to be overnight," Schiano said of Smith getting Arkansas' defense to the style he's accustomed. "But I think what you will see is relentless effort to swarm to the football. That doesn't happen by accident."

"I am really a big believer in defensive football, that you make your own luck," Schiano said. "Luck is proportionate to how hard you go to that ball."

Inheriting an Arkansas program fallen on hard times, Bielema rebuilds the Razorbacks "the right way," Schiano said, with the same formula taking Bielema to a 68-24 record from 2006 to 2012 as head coach at Wisconsin.

"He has a plan, a vision," Schiano said. "He has done it so he knows it works. Sticking to a plan and being persistent, that's what is going to make it."

Schiano said it takes a vision and plan, in that order. Ironically for "vision," Schiano chose the late blind singer Ray Charles' revered rendition of "America the Beautiful."

"Ray Charles never could see America," Schiano said. "But he had a vision."

Schiano was asked how difficult it would be for Bielema to not to compromise at the whim of the "noise" critical of his first-year at Arkansas, and to stick to the plan that propelled Wisconsin to 68-24 record from 2006-2012.

"You can't hear the noise," Schiano said. "At the end of the day, they can't eat you. So do the very best you can. What is the best you can? The best you can is doing it the way you know what's right."

"Your team will recognize it first," Schiano said. "If this is the answer this week, then this (something else) is the answer next week, your team picks up on it pretty darned quick. If your team has a system and they know you are committed to the formula of the stem, they'll stick with it. College football is recruit the right people for your program, and really develop them every year, physically, academically, emotionally, Bret does all those things."

Arkansas opens the season Aug. 30 in Auburn, Ala., against the Gus Malzahn-coached Spread offense juggernaut that ran the Auburn Tigers to a 12-2 SEC Championship season and national runner-up finish.

A former defensive coordinator, Schiano marveled that Auburn "averaged 286 yards running the ball" last season, and said the Razorbacks must fear the sudden deep pass.

"If Arkansas can avoid letting that big pass play go over the top and just play disciplined football, it's going to be a real tight game," Schiano said. "Now if the ball goes flying over the top, that's how they (Auburn) blow the game open. And once they get a lead, they're built to have a lead."